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Posted by: Kristi Finefield
The year 1870 is significant for copyright and the Library of Congress. Prior to that year, copyright registration was administered by the U.S. District Courts. Starting in 1870, the copyright registration and deposit system was centralized in the Library of Congress. One of the requirements for protecting your creation with copyright was to send in …
Posted in: Architecture, Photographs, Posters, Prints
Posted by: Kristi Finefield
In the Library’s latest Free to Use and Reuse set of images drawn from the collections, the focus is on the horse, and all the myriad ways these noble animals have been part of our lives, including sports, recreation, agriculture, transportation, and so on. I spotted one image that for me, and maybe for many …
Posted in: Photographs, Prints
Posted by: Kristi Finefield
Just across town from the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., stands Gallaudet University, an institute for higher learning for the deaf and hard-of-hearing. In 1864, President Abraham Lincoln signed the law that allowed the school to begin issuing college degrees, a milestone for deaf people seeking higher education. Edward M. Gallaudet (right) was the …
Posted in: Photographs, Prints
Posted by: Kristi Finefield
This photo provides an unfamiliar view of a very familiar structure: Yes, that is the unfinished stump of the Washington Monument, as it looked for about 25 years. In 1856, when funding shortages interrupted construction, the monument stood only 156 feet tall out of a projected 500 feet. During the U.S. Civil War, the site …
Posted in: Architecture, Photographs, Prints
Posted by: Kristi Finefield
The following is a guest post by Hanna Soltys, Reference Librarian, Prints & Photographs Division. Summer vacation is often associated with postcards as we share our journeys and memories with friends and family via snail mail. However, postcards get their moment in the sun all year long here in the Prints & Photographs Division. This …
Posted in: Photographs, Postcards, Prints, Research Guides
Posted by: Kristi Finefield
Many of those around the world watching news coverage of the terrible fire at Notre-Dame in Paris likely either reflected on a visit to the cathedral in their lifetime or felt a pang of regret at having not made it there before the fire. I personally thought back on my trip to Notre Dame as …
Posted in: Architecture, Drawings, Photographs, Prints
Posted by: Kristi Finefield
The following is a guest post by exhibition co-curators Katherine Blood, Curator of Fine Prints, and Martha H. Kennedy, Curator of Popular & Applied Graphic Art, Prints & Photographs Division. A new Library of Congress exhibition, “Art in Action: Herblock and Fellow Artists Respond to Their Times,” features selections from the Library’s signature collection of …
Posted by: Kristi Finefield
The following is a guest post by Katherine Blood, Curator of Fine Prints, Prints & Photographs Division. Among the Library’s treasures is a special collection of Italian chiaroscuro woodcuts made during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries by such master artists as Domenico Beccafumi, Ugo da Carpi, Bartolomeo Coriolano, and Niccolò Vicentino. Although the chiaroscuro technique …
Posted in: Prints, Researcher Stories
Posted by: Kristi Finefield
A column in The Hartford Courant discussing the decline of letter writing in the U.S. blames “this age of quick communication and rapid transportation.” While this is by no means surprising, the date of the newspaper article might be: Oct. 2, 1938! Yes, even 80 years ago, the art of letter writing was seen to …
Posted in: Photographs, Posters, Prints